The Trader Joe’s in Queens has a sign up announcing its grand opening this Friday, October 26. (Thanks to alwaysroom4gelo for the info.) It’ll be at 90-30 Metropolitan Avenue, on the border of Rego Park and Forest Hills. You have to get there by bus (or drive), and it’ll be open from 9am to 9pm.

Brooklyn isn’t the only borough getting a new outpost of that relatively vegan-friendly West Coast purveyor of loss-leading organic bananas and avocados: Trader Joe’s is also coming to Rego Park, Queens. None of us SuperVegans live in Queens, where the blog per capita rate is far below that of Brooklyn, so TJ’s November ’06 announcement seems to have slipped through the cracks. Seems the grocer has their best spokeswoman, Alison Mochizuki, on the case, too: though first slated to open in March, the store is now tentatively set to open for business in late September. When asked what the delay was, Mochizuki replied, “No reason.”

That’s almost enough to inspire me to pursue a career in public relations.

You can eat fancy Caribbean fare at The Blue Mahoe on 14th Street, and find some very hip and trendy falafel (I mean that in a nice way) at Taïm in the West Village. Nearby, you’ll find two Cafe Angeliques, one on on Grove Street and the other on Bleeker. Both offer vegan sandwiches, muffins and cookies along with usual coffeehouse fare.

And finally, for fans of dosa-nouveau, we’ve added the two downstate locations of the Hampton Chutney Company, in Soho and on the Upper West Side. (Every so often, people ask us what city SuperVegan will tackle next: Boston? San Francisco? LA? But the correct answer is the Hamptons.)